January 24, 2012 — The Commerce Department’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeks nominees in the US for the 2012 National Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI), honoring "this nation’s creative geniuses," said Richard Maulsby, the USPTO
Category Archives: LEDs
January 24, 2012 — Semiconductor materials companies Soitec (Euronext) and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. demonstrated 4" and 6" engineered gallium nitride (GaN) substrates, part of their strategic joint development program started in December 2010. The companies launched pilot production lines to enable wider market adoption.
Multiple engineered GaN substrates are produced by transferring ultra-thin high-quality GaN layers from a single GaN wafer. The technique combines Sumitomo Electric’s GaN wafer manufacturing technology with Soitec’s Smart Cut layer-transfer method. The resulting wafers have low defect density, and the same coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) as GaN wafers, without the high cost of bulk GaN wafers.
The scalability demonstrated from 2" to 4" and 6" wafers during the project brought the partners to invest in pilot production lines in Itami, Japan, and Bernin, France. Sumitomo Electric will manufacture bulk free-standing GaN substrates in Japan for shipment to France, where Soitec will apply its Smart Cut layer-transfer process to generate the engineered wafers. Based on CVD techniques, Smart Cut technology’s wafer bonding and layer splitting processes made it possible to transfer a thin layer of crystalline material from a donor substrate to another substrate. The pilot lines will initially fabricate four-inch wafers with six-inch wafer production to quickly follow to support customers demand.
The substrates target use in advanced high-brightness light-emitting diode (HB-LED) manufacture, as well as power-efficient controllers for the electric vehicles and energy markets. These substrates "will allow the introduction of a new materials platform with novel and advanced functionalities," said Frédéric Dupont, vice president of Soitec’s Specialty Electronics Business Unit, commenting on the milestone. Yoshiki Miura, general manager of the Compound Semiconductor Materials Division at Sumitomo Electric, noted the "amazing business opportunities" of the LED and energy markets.
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. designs, manufactures and sells optical fibers, cables, components, advanced electronic devices, and automotive parts. For more information about Sumitomo Electric, visit http://global-sei.com.
Soitec manufactures revolutionary semiconductor materials for energy and electronic applications. For more information, visit: www.soitec.com.
January 24, 2012 — Active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) TVs drew a crowd at International CES 2012 in Las Vegas this month, but manufacturing challenges and expensive fab materials will limit global shipments of the sets for several years, says IHS iSuppli. IHS compares the 55" AMOLED TVs from LG Display and Samsung, each using different manufacturing technologies for the OLED displays.
In 2012, 34,000 AMOLED TVs will ship. Global AMOLED TV shipments will hit 2.1 million units in 2015, just 1% of the total flat-panel market, shows a new IHS iSuppli Small and Medium Displays service.
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| Figure. IHS iSuppli AMOLED TV shipment forecast. |
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | |
| Thousands of Units | 20 | 22 | 34 | 321 | 935 | 2,107 |
Manufacturing yield is too low for AMOLED TVs, keeping prices "dramatically higher than those of liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs," said Vinita Jakhanwal, director of small/medium and OLED displays at IHS. AMOLED manufacturing efficiencies and output yields are unlikely to match those of LCDs for the next three years. Large-sized AMOLED panel production faces issues with scaling manufacturing to newer-generation fabs. And the small pool of materials suppliers is keeping materials costs high.
Also read: OLED trends: Materials, color patterning advances and the display race
Billions of dollars have been invested in large-panel AMOLED display technology, by companies like LG Display and Samsung Electronics, which brought 55" units to CES. Recent innovations in AMOLED backplane technology, materials and equipment and suppliers’ investments in newer-generation AMOLED fabs have made these AMOLED TVs possible. However, pricing remains much higher compared to current LCD TVs in the market. In 2012, 55" AMOLED TVs ($8000) will cost about $4300 more than equivalent LCD TVs. The display improvements realized by AMOLED TVs are unlikely to sway consumers until this price gap drops to about 20%, Jakhanwal reports.
IHS iSuppli expects AMOLED display suppliers, equipment makers, material makers and TV makers to cooperate in developing more efficient and cost effective ways in order to make large-sized AMOLED panels, eventually pushing prices down.
Early production of 55" AMOLED panels is likely to be conducted at existing Gen-8 amorphous silicon (a-Si) LCD fabs that will be converted to make the oxide silicon backplanes needed for AMOLEDs. Both LGD and Samsung plan to move mass production to eighth-generation AMOLED lines in the future.
LG Display’s 55" 3D, 3840 by 1260 definition AMOLED TV boasts of features that exceed any other flat-panel TV now on the market. The television is only 4 millimeters thick and weighs 17 pounds. It also has a pixel speed that is 1,000 times faster and consumes only one-third of the power compared to conventional LCDs. LG Display indicated the price for its 55" AMOLED TV is expected to decline to $4,000 by 2013 (comparable LCD TVs will likely cost less than $1,000). Samsung also showcased a 55-inch 3-D AMOLED television with similar specifications. LGD and Samsung are expected to begin shipping their OLED TVs to the market by the third quarter of 2012, in time for the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
Table. A comparison of AMOLED and LCD televisions specifications. SOURCE: IHS iSuppli.
| Specification | AMOLED | LED (Edge-Lit) |
LCD |
| Size | 55-inches | 55-inches | 55-inches |
| Display Resolution | 3840×2160 (Ultra Definition) |
1920×1080 (Full HD) |
1920×1080 (Full HD) |
| Contrast Ratio | 100,000,000:1 | 10,000,000:1 | 150,000:1 |
| Response Time | 1 millisecond | 1 sec. | 2 sec. |
| Wide Viewing Angle | 178°x178° | 178°x178° | 178°x178° |
| Thickness | 4mm | 1.2in | 3.8in |
| Power Consumption (Max.) | 74W | 230W | 310W |
| Weight | 17 lb. | 62 lb | 66 lb. |
| Price | $8,000 | $3,700 | $1,000 |
LG Display and Samsung used different AMOLED technology in the TV sets they brought to CES.
Samsung’s AMOLED TV panel uses a horizontal red/green/blue (RGB) pixel structure, which requires a fine metal mask (FMM) for the AMOLED material patterning. This is challenging to implement on large substrates, due to fine-pitch alignment requirements for the FMM and glass substrate.
Samsung’s AMOLED technology mainly uses low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) LCD as the backplane. However, for larger fabs, the company may consider working with oxide silicon backplanes as an intermediary step before new-generation low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) backplanes are available.
LGD’s AMOLED panel used a vertical white-OLED (WOLED) pixel structure with a color filter, eliminating the need for an RGB mask and associated alignment. However, this approach needs an additional color filter. The oxide silicon backplane of LGD’s 55-inch TV likely will be manufactured at LGD’s existing eighth-generation a-Si LCD fab. LGD indicated that such a conversion of an existing a-Si fab to make oxide silicon backplanes will require almost 50% less investment than a new LTPS LCD fab. This fab, according to LGD, is able to do three half-cuts of 55" displays from one substrate.
Access the IHS iSuppli Small and Medium Displays service.
IHS (NYSE: IHS) provides analysis on energy and power; design and supply chain; defense, risk and security; environmental, health and safety (EHS) and sustainability; country and industry forecasting; and commodities, pricing and cost. Learn more at www.ihs.com.
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January 20, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — LED manufacturer Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. has applied, registered, and secured more than 10,000 patents for light emitting diodes (LEDs) globally. The company holds a patent portfolio across a broad range of technologies and processes, including material, design, manufacturing and methodology.
Seoul Semiconductor invests 10-20% of its annual revenue in research and development, including funding of an affiliate company. Seoul Semiconductor’s strategy is to hold a large number of patents, and cross-license with major LED corporations, noted Brian Wilcox, vice president of Seoul Semiconductor, saying "R&D is our future and patents heighten our competitiveness."
The company holds patent rights for Acrich, a semiconductor light source using a multi-cell architecture. Starting in 2012, Seoul Semiconductor expects increased business activity from the Acrich2 AC LED technology, as it goes into production. The LED maker also has patent rights for deep UV LED technology, which it expects to be a future commercial success.
Seoul Semiconductor is a top LED supplier with a range of LED technology and production capacity in areas such as deep UV LEDs and non-polar LEDs, as well as Acrich AC LEDs. Learn more at http://www.acriche.com/en/.
January 20, 2012 — United Silicon Carbide Inc. (USCi) will develop next-generation silicon carbide (SiC) devices with AIXTRON SE’s VP2400 hot-wall chemical vapor deposition (CVD) tool. USCi plans to install the CVD system in Q3 2012.
The 2400 system with Aixtron’s SiC Planetary Reactor technology will be used to rapidly develop novel SiC device designs. It achieves high growth rates for high-voltage (5-15kV) SiC devices with 100um+ thickness.
"Having evaluated the market for SiC epitaxy equipment, and based upon our success with merchant SiC epitaxy vendors utilizing similar tools, we have selected the AIXTRON VP2400HW system for the superior quality of both n- and p-type SiC epitaxial layers," said Dr. John Hostetler, Director of Engineering at USCi, adding "our ownership of a 2400 will greatly facilitate our production process transfer to our merchant epitaxial wafer partners."
AIXTRON SE provides deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry. Learn more at www.aixtron.com
United Silicon Carbide, inc. is a semiconductor company specializing in the development of high efficiency Silicon Carbide (SiC) devices including Schottky Barrier Diodes, JFETs, BJTs, Solid State Circuit Breakers, Power Modules, and Custom SiC integrated circuits.
January 19, 2012 — European research centers imec and Holst Centre are pulling together their collective organic and oxide transistor and flexible organic light emitting diode (OLED) lighting research and contacts for a new project focused on next-generation flexible OLED displays. The goal is an economically scalable route to high-volume manufacturing of flexible active-matrix OLED displays.
Imec, Holst Centre, and associated partners will target high resolution, low power consumption, large area, outdoor readability, flexibility and light weight in the OLED displays. Individual challeneges that the research will address include:
- a mechanically flexible encapsulation film and TFT backplane;
- printed, high-efficiency OLEDs
- new materials and processes for cheaper production, better quality, lower power, more robustness and more flexibility.
Designs of drivers, pixel circuits and TFT backplane matrix will be reconsidered as increasing display area influences the amount of pixels-per-inch or the refresh rates. Finally the program scope includes the development of new manufacturing equipment such as fine patterning equipment for backplanes and tools for integrated roll-to-roll manufacturing.
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| Image. Flexible OLED display developed in close collaboration with Polymer Vision, one of the industrial partners in the shared programs at Holst Centre and imec. |
State-of-the-art OLED displays offer stronger contrast than LCD screens because OLEDs only emit once activated. OLEDs boast fast response times, low power consumption, better viewing angle, and simpler designs with fewer components than LCD displays. "Flexible displays represent an enormous economic and technical opportunity for flat panel manufacturers and its supply chain," said Gerwin Gelinck (Holst Centre), Program Manager of the OLED Display Program.
Also read: Long-term market outlook may shine for OLED displays
Paul Heremans (imec), Program Manager of the OLED Display Program: “With this program in mind, we already have been working more and more towards integrating separate building blocks and have realized OLED displays using both organic and metal oxide TFT backplanes. Thin, plastic substrates were used, and the displays were fully encapsulated using our state-of-the-art barrier technology. Part of this was done with other research institutes in a European project called FLAME, but we could really pull this off because of intense collaboration with some of our industrial partners. We will demonstrate some of these display prototypes in 2012.”
Imec performs world-leading research in nanoelectronics. Further information on imec can be found at www.imec.be.
Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Sensor Technologies and for Flexible Electronics. Holst Centre was set up in 2005 by imec (Flanders, Belgium) and TNO (The Netherlands) with support from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Government of Flanders. More information: www.holstcentre.com.
January 19, 2012 — Hine Automation LLC shipped its Star SL-300 single-substrate vacuum transfer system to Annealsys in Montpellier, France. Annealsys will integrate the wafer transfer system onto its MC-200 metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) tool for R&D and pilot environments.
The Star SL-300 vacuum transfer system is designed for 300mm and smaller wafers, used in semiconductor manufacturing or related industries. Its Slide and Z-lift mechanisms enable single substrate automation in tools that do not have lifts pin in the process chamber. The Star was designed to reduce or eliminate the many issues encountered with magnetically coupled transfer mechanisms, cost-effectively, said Jose Salas, business manager, Hine Automation.
The MC-200 can process many wafers sizes up to 200mm and offers the option of lower deposition temperatures thanks to its PE-MOCVD option.
Annealsys designs and manufactures rapid thermal processing (RTP) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment for R&D, quality control (QC) and niche production applications. Learn more at www.annealsys.com.
Hine Automation LLC designs and manufactures vacuum automation systems and robotic components for solar, semiconductor, flat panel display and related manufacturing tool OEMs. Learn more at www.hineautomation.com.
January 18, 2012 — SEMI presented its annual SEMI Award for North America to QD Vision. QD Vision team members made significant progress on the integration and manufacturing processes essential to the commercialization of quantum dot (QD) technology.
The QD Vision team’s pioneering work in the commercialization of QD technology is expected to support a wide range of products from lamps to displays to photovoltaics with lower cost, higher energy efficiency and greater wavelength control. Seth Coe-Sullivan accepted the SEMI Award on behalf of his team during a banquet at the 2012 SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) yesterday in Half Moon Bay, Calif.
Team members include:
- Moungi Bawendi, MIT professor, QD Vision Science Advisory Board
- Vladimir Bulovic, MIT professor, QD Vision Science Advisory Board, QD Vision founder
- Seth Coe-Sullivan, QD Vision founder and CTO
- John Ritter, QD Vision, EVP of Product Development and Operations
- Jonathan S. Steckel, QD Vision founder and director of Chemistry
Quantum Dots are semiconductor nanocrystals that glow when exposed to current or light. Discovered in the early 1980s, they were researched throughout the 1980s and early 1990s when the industry recognized the commercial potential. QDs emit different colors depending on their size and the semiconductor material in the nanocrystal. The commercial differentiation is in the bright, pure tunable colors, low-power consumption for displays and lighting, and the potential of improved efficiency for photovoltaics. QD Vision was the first to sell QD products which were integrated into general illumination lamps, introduced in 2009 at Light Fair International. QD-based displays will first improve the color quality of LCDs, and will subsequently become the emissive element in an electroluminescent display, where R&D efficiencies demonstrated in 2011 have already eclipsed that of OLEDs and LCDs.
“Our industry honors the QD Vision team for their combined efforts to speed commercialization of Quantum Dot technology,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. “This team’s work on developing integration and manufacturing processes has moved the industry forward for a wide range of applications.”
“The commercialization of quantum dot technology, led by the team at QD Vision, opens the door to new generations of products in lighting, displays, and photovoltaics,” said Bill Bottoms, chairman of the SEMI Award Advisory Committee. “They offer greater wavelength control, improved color purity and greater energy efficiency than any existing alternative. Quantum dots hold the promise of replacing the technologies we use in those areas today.””
The SEMI Award was established in 1979 to recognize outstanding technical achievement and meritorious contribution in the areas of Semiconductor Materials, Wafer Fabrication, Assembly and Packaging, Process Control, Test and Inspection, Robotics and Automation, Quality Enhancement, and Process Integration.
The award is the highest honor conferred by SEMI. It is open to individuals or teams from industry or academia whose specific accomplishments have broad commercial impact and widespread technical significance for the entire semiconductor industry. Nominations are accepted from individuals of North American-based member companies of SEMI. Past award recipients include Walter Benzing and Mike McNealy, Ken Levy, Jean Hoerni, Dan Maydan, Robert Akins and Igor Khandros, among others.
SEMI is aglobal industry association serving the nano- and microelectronics manufacturing supply chains. For more information, visit www.semi.org.
2012 SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) reports:
ISS 2012: What is the semiconductor industry’s strategy? by Michael A. Fury
ISS Top 10 trends, from Pete Singer
January 18, 2012 — Consumers are adopting LED-backlit LCD TVs more slowly than expected, prompting TV makers to design lower-power, lower-cost LED backlights using fewer LEDs per TV set, shows the NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly LED Backlight Report. Fewer LEDs means lower brightness, thicker designs, and a hit to picture quality.
These new LED backlights use about half as many LEDs, and replace light guide plates, optical film, and other materials with lower cost diffuser plates and lens structures on the LEDs. TV makers have been adopting 2-chip LED packages to reduce the number of packages and to reduce optical film use. The number of LED packages used per set with direct backlights is expected to be less than that of sets with edge backlights.
Also read: GaN LED market growth starts in 2012
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| Figure 1. Backlight cost forecasts for 32” HD 60 Hz LCD TV Panel. Source: NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly LED & CCFL Backlight Cost Report. |
The reduction in LEDs and other materials lowers power consumption, but requires a thicker profile. Brightness is lowered to 300 nits as opposed to 450 nits for edge-lit LED or CCFL, and lack of dimming reduces the contrast ratio and image quality.
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| Figure 2. Forecast of LED packages per TV set. Source: NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly LED Backlight Report. |
"LED penetration in LCD TV was 7 points lower than our forecast a year ago, mainly due to high LED premiums. The premium for a LED backlight in a 32" LCD TV was 42% in Q4 2011, although it had been expected to fall to 27%," said Yoshio Tamura, SVP, NPD DisplaySearch.
Lowering power consumption and price brings LED-backlit TVs into the cost-competitive range with CCFL-backlit LCD TVs, and even CRT TVs. The materials cost for direct LED backlights comes closer to that of CCFL backlights. NPD DisplaySearch estimates that for 32” LCD TVs, direct LED backlights cost 1.3-1.4x CCFL backlights, as opposed to edge-lit LED backlights (2x+ CCFL cost). For 40” LCD TVs, the savings could be even greater.
LED backlight penetration is likely to continue to ramp, added Barclays Capital, reporting on what the firm saw at 2012 International CES in Las Vegas this month. Direct-lit TVs are likely to remain in the premium niche of the market, Barclays warns, adding that "LED industry overcapacity is unlikely to stabilize in 2012, suggesting another year of 25+% Y/Y ASP declines."
Companies at CES:
Samsung’s non-organic LED TV line-up for 2012 highlights strong focus on LED-lit models, suggesting potential upside to our LED TV penetration forecast of ~68% in 2012, with management indicating the LED TVs are likely to be "mainstream" for the industry in 2013, Barclays reports.
Sony’s newly introduced Crystal LED display technology has the potential to meaningfully expand LED chip units per screen (~6M tiny LEDs for a 55" screen vs. 100-200 for an edge-lit model) but the technology remains in prototype phase. New display technologies like Sony’s CrystalLED display have the longer-term potential to boost unit demand, Barclays predicts.
The NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly LED Backlight Report is a quarterly update of the entire value chain for large-sized TFT LCD backlight units: technological developments, industry news, price trends, supply/demand, cost structures and more. For more information on these reports, please contact Charles Camaroto at 1.888.436.7673 or 1.516.625.2452, or [email protected] or contact your regional DisplaySearch office in China, Japan, Korea or Taiwan. NPD DisplaySearch is a global market research and consulting firm specializing in the display supply chain, as well as the emerging photovoltaic/solar cell industries. Visit http://www.displaysearch.com/.
January 18, 2012 — 36% of semiconductor fabs are in high-risk zones, finds Semico in its Semiconductor Updated Fab Database. Semico notes the industry disruptions caused by the Japan earthquake and tsunami (March 2011) and the flooding in Thailand (Fall 2011) and the challenges these presented to large chip manufacturers in the regions, as well as strains put on the semiconductor and electronics supply chains.
Highlights from Semico:
- The 36% of fabs that are in the ring of fire contribute 41% of the world’s total semiconductor capacity.
- From a capacity standpoint, Japan contributes 47.7% of that 41%, Taiwan has another 47.5%, and the US only 4.8%.
- Only 15% of the fabs are memory fabs, but those fabs supply half of the world’s total memory capacity.
- 42% of the world’s total logic capacity is produced in the high-risk area of the ring of fire.
In 2011, another analyst firm, IC Insights, estimated that almost two-thirds of worldwide IC industry capacity was located in seismically active areas, owing to the size of the fabs in the Asia-Pacific. Video: Bill McClean discusses seismic risk for IC manufacturing, supply & demand
The Thai floods will cause disruption into 2012. A resolution of Thailand supply constraints in 1H will be followed by stronger product cycles/easier compares in 2H, said Credit Suisse’s J. Pitzer in a bulletin this week. Near term, the semi space saw "multiple challenges in C4Q11 from the impact of the Thai flooding to reduced demand from Europe and the consequential effect on consumer sentiment," agreed Vijay Rakesh of Sterne Agee.
These changes, also with the economic crisis in Europe, caused a flat growth year in 2011, impacted the status of semiconductor fabs worldwide: capacity, capex, wafer size, closures, launches, production ramps, technology node migration, and employee count.
Semico’s 2011 Fab Database study provides information on changes that occurred in 2011, and what plans are in place for upcoming fab construction and closures in 2012-2013. The report addresses development work occurring with 450mm and 3D production. A special section is devoted to DRAM and NAND fab trends. The report compares the number of fabs used by IDMs versus the number for foundries, and how many are used for major semiconductor categories including logic, memory, analog/discretes, LED and MEMS production.
Semico’s fab database includes 769 entries, covering fabs that are planned, under construction, installing tools, operating, closing, and closed. Fabs that were planned, never built, and then cancelled were excluded from this report.
Semico is a semiconductor marketing & consulting research company. Learn more at www.semico.com.